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I boycott purely out of vengeance.GothBard's major issue is their "quality control": If you buy something from "Amazon Marketplace", you can rest assured it's going to be a cheap counterfeit.
Which, considering most of the stuff there is already cheap crap, is an impressive feat.
EDIT: But yeah, selling counterfeit items on Amazon is apparently a multi-billion dollar business, and Amazon doesn't do anything about it, so GothBard boycotts them.
Yes, this is also why I avoid it, The General and the kids are a bit more cavalier about it but it's not my place to rain on their parade.
Edit: I haven't noticed anything outright counterfeit but I have noticed that Amazon has almost no quality control as it's easier and probably cheaper just refunding and returns.
GothBard is religious about her skin care; people are flabbergasted to learn that Impus Major is her son, and not some younger cousin. Such skin care doesn't come cheap. And OMG she can spot counterfeiting that I'd never notice. "No, this bottle's color is slightly off." "Feel this product; it's grainy and the oil has separated. That never happens with the real product."
Sure, she can return it for a refund, but as she puts it, what happens when she doesn't notice a counterfeit and it actively damages her skin?
Not a risk she's willing to take.
EDIT: Speaking of skin...
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I boycott purely out of vengeance.
Freehold supports your quest for vengeance.
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For the record, Impus Major's instructor still hasn't posted the exam.
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For the record, Impus Major's instructor still hasn't posted the exam.
Can't you lower the instructor's grade for being late or something?
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For the record, Impus Major's instructor still hasn't posted the exam.Can't you lower the instructor's grade for being late or something?
I just want to have him fight the other math teacher in my own myopic quest to turn math teacher against math teacher and thereby get another step closer to the vengeance against math I have always sought.
Vengeance is the word of the day!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
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Classic car fangirl moment of the day:
Saw a mint condition '59 Impala (with the gorgeous wing-shaped rear fins) on a flatbed trailer as I was bringing Hermione home from ballet tonight. Glad I don't own it, can't imagine the stress or the headaches, but it was sure pretty to look at.
It made me happy that Hermione was awed by it, too.
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I know three people who have been horribly injured due to Amazon's lack of workplace safety ethics. I steadfastly refuse to give money to a company that has demonstrably failed their workers.
We get warnings every so often about a recall related to 'product is inferior'/'product is not up to manufacturing specs' and their packaging looks 'off'.
I wouldn't be surprised at Corporate cutting corners to squeeze every little buck out of a thing.
Nighty.
About to go home. Good night, everyone. And Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving, John.
Classic car fangirl moment of the day:
Saw a mint condition '59 Impala (with the gorgeous wing-shaped rear fins) on a flatbed trailer as I was bringing Hermione home from ballet tonight. Glad I don't own it, can't imagine the stress or the headaches, but it was sure pretty to look at.
It made me happy that Hermione was awed by it, too.
Growing up I had a friend/distant cousin that had a '64 Impala. Those five years difference...you wouldn't even know it was supposed to be the same make and model.
About to go home. Good night, everyone. And Happy Thanksgiving.
You have a good Thanksgiving and try not to pick up any extra shifts if you don't have to.
Also, don't sweat the petty things or pet the sweaty things.About to go home. Good night, everyone. And Happy Thanksgiving.You have a good Thanksgiving and try not to pick up any extra shifts if you don't have to.
I gotta disagree! Depending on the circumstances you should absolutely pet the sweaty thing. Vigorously.
Can we at least agree not to pwet the settee things?I gotta disagree! Depending on the circumstances you should absolutely pet the sweaty thing. Vigorously.Also, don't sweat the petty things or pet the sweaty things.About to go home. Good night, everyone. And Happy Thanksgiving.You have a good Thanksgiving and try not to pick up any extra shifts if you don't have to.
No.
Should be a fun but busy day of organizing regular and power tools and then going out in the free range boulder field to find a boulder suitable for a two tier water feature.
Also, don't sweat the petty things or pet the sweaty things.About to go home. Good night, everyone. And Happy Thanksgiving.You have a good Thanksgiving and try not to pick up any extra shifts if you don't have to.
But I like petting the sweaty things.
So yesterday the manager at work asked me to come in three hours later than scheduled to help adjust for a later warehouse delivery.
I was okay with that, as it still got me out of work at 1700 (5PM). Still plenty of time to get home for dinner with the family.
Just got a panicked and frustrated call "Can you work from 12-8? We're giving you the weekend off so you can work later!"
"Um, no. I'm already coming in three hours later than originally scheduled"
Manager: "Well, we do a lot for you and try to work with your schedule "
Me: "I could maybe give you six, but that's Really Pushing It."
Manager: "Could you do seven?"
Me: "Six is REALLY PUSHING IT!"
Manager: "But we do all this stuff for you "
Me: "I can't make any guarantees."
Manager: "Come in as late as you can, please!"
With the amount of attitude and push-back I'm beginning to wonder if there will be reprisal.
I'm actually hoping there will be.
It's also making me hope most deeply I get selected for a lengthy jury duty next week and the need for sequestering. :>
I generally refuse to by things from Amazon if at all possible, though I had a bunch of Amazon gift cards (mostly from work, when they screw up our pay, which is often enough, for some reason, it is corrected via Amazon gift cards in the amount of the screw up, don't ask cause I really don't know why LoL). So I used them to buy a floating shelf for our bar, and some Dragonlance books I didn't own (which isn't very many, fewer now! So close to owning every TSR and WoTC novel ever published. Still debating if I actually want to spend money on the old choose your own adventure series that TSR did though...). It is infuriating to me how poorly workers are treated by many companies, mine included.
Hey Wei Ji, good for you to not give into work, their mistakes are their issue, not yours, no matter how hard they try to make it seem like it is, good old jerk manager tactic that is.
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For those waiting with bated breath: The instructor still hasn't posted the exam, over 36 hours after he said he would.
(The email was on Monday, saying he'd post it either Monday or Tuesday.)
I see a formal complaint against him being filed very, very soon.
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Oh, forgot to mention, Impus Major's math professor should be sent en mass an email from all his students that says only the following:
Dear Professor Jack Wagon,
Here is some math for you to solve this fine holiday.
U = suck
Proof that ya gorram trash panda.
Love,
All your students and the money they or their parents wasted on your class
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With WFH being a new normal for many higher end jobs, who wouldn't want 20 acres and a view for the same price as 900 sq ft and insane parking costs in the city?
This is precisely why I outright refuse to EVER move or encourage any loved ones to move into metro areas, college towns, or wealthy US cities with international ports.
The nation desperately needs to do something about income inequality and it all HAS to start with systematic top-down changes to cost/"value" of land, rent, and homes in metro/city/urban/college affluent areas where the CoL is 3-8x higher than in rural or suburban areas.
My personal dream is to one day MAYBE save up six figures or so and buy some land far enough out that I'm surrounded by nature but also close enough to civilization that I can be connected to the electrical grid, the internet, and have at least occasional mail/package deliveries. Somewhere that's remote enough that it's never had a mayor, Walmart, or megachurch would be ideal but frankly, I am not hopeful that short of a complete economic and societal collapse that I'll ever be able to save the kind of money that would be needed to build that home or actually retire.
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With WFH being a new normal for many higher end jobs, who wouldn't want 20 acres and a view for the same price as 900 sq ft and insane parking costs in the city?This is precisely why I outright refuse to EVER move or encourage any loved ones to move into metro areas, college towns, or wealthy US cities with international ports.
The nation desperately needs to do something about income inequality and it all HAS to start with systematic top-down changes to cost/"value" of land, rent, and homes in metro/city/urban/college affluent areas where the CoL is 3-8x higher than in rural or suburban areas.
My personal dream is to one day MAYBE save up six figures or so and buy some land far enough out that I'm surrounded by nature but also close enough to civilization that I can be connected to the electrical grid, the internet, and have at least occasional mail/package deliveries. Somewhere that's remote enough that it's never had a mayor, Walmart, or megachurch would be ideal but frankly, I am not hopeful that short of a complete economic and societal collapse that I'll ever be able to save the kind of money that would be needed to build that home or actually retire.
Sounds like neither of you is married to an extrovert. Neither GothBard nor Impus Major do well in isolation; they need big events like concerts, karoake nights out, theaters, and all the other "niceties" that come from living in a city. Impus Major's favorite activity is going out at night into downtown Berkeley and just hanging around with a bunch of other college-age kids doing nothing but "vibing" (and for others imbibing). Both of them suffered bouts of depression during lockdown even while living in a small house with four people in it simply because they wanted variety, change, and face-to-face social interaction with people outside of their immediate friends group.
Just as city living isn't for everyone, neither is rural living. So I can categorically state that *I* wouldn't want 20 acres and a view. My "dream home" would be somewhere around 3000 square feet on less than an acre, within 10 minutes by bike of a downtown area.
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I lived in the country for 18 years, it has it's moments but I vastly prefer city living, especially with Madison having so much green space if I yearn for nature it is easily accessible. It helps that we live pretty much in the middle so all I have to do is drive a half hour in any direction and I'm surrounded by farms and fields.
With WFH being a new normal for many higher end jobs, who wouldn't want 20 acres and a view for the same price as 900 sq ft and insane parking costs in the city?This is precisely why I outright refuse to EVER move or encourage any loved ones to move into metro areas, college towns, or wealthy US cities with international ports.
The nation desperately needs to do something about income inequality and it all HAS to start with systematic top-down changes to cost/"value" of land, rent, and homes in metro/city/urban/college affluent areas where the CoL is 3-8x higher than in rural or suburban areas.
My personal dream is to one day MAYBE save up six figures or so and buy some land far enough out that I'm surrounded by nature but also close enough to civilization that I can be connected to the electrical grid, the internet, and have at least occasional mail/package deliveries. Somewhere that's remote enough that it's never had a mayor, Walmart, or megachurch would be ideal but frankly, I am not hopeful that short of a complete economic and societal collapse that I'll ever be able to save the kind of money that would be needed to build that home or actually retire.
Sounds like neither of you is married to an extrovert. Neither GothBard nor Impus Major do well in isolation; they need big events like concerts, karoake nights out, theaters, and all the other "niceties" that come from living in a city. Impus Major's favorite activity is going out at night into downtown Berkeley and just hanging around with a bunch of other college-age kids doing nothing but "vibing" (and for others imbibing). Both of them suffered bouts of depression during lockdown even while living in a small house with four people in it simply because they wanted variety, change, and face-to-face social interaction with people outside of their immediate friends group.
Just as city living isn't for everyone, neither is rural living. So I can categorically state that...
CITY LIVIIIIIIIIIING I CAN BE AS LOUD AS I WANT
I live in a small town on the edge of a slightly larger town. I'm not sure I'd enjoy living in a city at this stage, and no bloody way could I afford to live in the country.
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Former Coworker (multiple times today): It doesn't matter how organized our equipment area is!
Me: Maybe for you, but keeping us organized is literally part of my job description
Former Coworker: Oh, right! Good luck with that!!
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I've earned a new nickname at work, The Closer. Because I've been going around and finishing jobs for the last two weeks, because my master of all skill set, and because of my organization ability and eye for detail.
Thanksgiving should be... Interesting.
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I'm gonna have lunch with a family friend and maybe play some boardgames. And call my Grandma because I dont call her enough.
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Why I'm still working next week and other crews are not.
The Boss: I have a wall to start building next week, just some snap stone so shouldn't be too hard!
Coworker's response: I'm going to need a special super expensive heater used in mining to do it (the boss passed)
My response: Awesome, I can't wait!
Guess who got the job.
I'm gonna have lunch with a family friend and maybe play some boardgames. And call my Grandma because I dont call her enough.
Gonna go eat dinner with Grandma at her friend's afterwards. I like food.
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My Thanksgiving is learning to deal with the kids now that all their friends are in college.
For years, Shiro has hosted a "wayward souls" Thanksgiving where he hosts anyone who doesn't have family in the area. Some years it's just him and Lara Croft guy, but he does a full southern Thanksgiving feast anyway. This year mother-in-law said we could do Thanksgiving any day we wanted, so we thought it would be nice to go to Shiro's on Thursday and do Thanksgiving another day. (We chose Friday.)
We planned it all out, told the kids about the trip to Shiro's...
...and found out that they've mapped out every other single minute of every single day from now until Sunday night from 10:00 am - 2:00 am every day with friends who are in town visiting!!!
So, I'm happy that they at least set Thursday aside.
They're peeved at me for making them come home for a whopping two hours on Friday to see their grandmother.
Oh, and yeah, Impus Major still has to take his midterm. It got posted at 10:49 am this morning.
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My Thanksgiving is learning to deal with the kids now that all their friends are in college.
For years, Shiro has hosted a "wayward souls" Thanksgiving where he hosts anyone who doesn't have family in the area. Some years it's just him and Lara Croft guy, but he does a full southern Thanksgiving feast anyway. This year mother-in-law said we could do Thanksgiving any day we wanted, so we thought it would be nice to go to Shiro's on Thursday and do Thanksgiving another day. (We chose Friday.)
We planned it all out, told the kids about the trip to Shiro's...
...and found out that they've mapped out every other single minute of every single day from now until Sunday night from 10:00 am - 2:00 am every day with friends who are in town visiting!!!So, I'm happy that they at least set Thursday aside.
They're peeved at me for making them come home for a whopping two hours on Friday to see their grandmother.
Oh, and yeah, Impus Major still has to take his midterm. It got posted at 10:49 am this morning.
Please give Shiro a big hug from me!
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Oh, and yeah, Impus Major still has to take his midterm. It got posted at 10:49 am this morning.
My completely immature and knee-jerk reaction? Delay the turn-in by the rough amount of time it took for the midterm to be posted with an apology of "Sorry, this came late so it ended up at the back of the queue. Education by example."
Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday, those who celebrate!
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Festive Fire-Roasted Featherbeasts, FaWtLies!
In about 18 months, I moved over $1.3 million worth of inventory (based off a reasonable markup from the dealer prices we had with our suppliers). I singlehandedly prevented a net-loss fiscal year in the first 6 months of my stint. I was quite good at what I did (not that it required much more than attention to detail and the wherewithal to do the work).
But!
Then the account managers on the Bezos side of our arrangement started giving us pushback on our markup. Sales dropped a bit, so we adjusted the operation and cut our profit margin my a whopping 33%. Less than four months later, they pushed again, but we were lower than we were willing to go, already. More sales lost. I countered by nearly tripling the size of our catalog, and we held our own via diversification.
But that didn't last.
By the time it was all over, *they* were indicating that they would buy *nothing* from us unless we matched their prices per item. And those prices??
An exact match of our dealer cost.
F&!! Jeff Bezos' hideous, domineering, economic racketeering outfit. And Bezos, too.
NEVER. AGAIN.
Not a dime. Not a cent. I don't work for free, and I don't subsist on air. I went from making a small, *small* living, to being starved BY MY JOB.
I hope that entire economic cancer gets burned away a la Fight Club.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Hrmpf. The electricity bill came and it's bloated. It shows over 400 kWh more used over the last six month than the previous one, which was already 200 kWh more than the earlier...
It can't really be the issue with the meter because it was replaced with a new one in the middle of that period, and the new one shows use of 572 kWh over two months.
Is the electric water heater going completely bonkers or is it something else?
Hrmpf. The electricity bill came and it's bloated. It shows over 400 kWh more used over the last six month than the previous one, which was already 200 kWh more than the earlier...
It can't really be the issue with the meter because it was replaced with a new one in the middle of that period, and the new one shows use of 572 kWh over two months.
Is the electric water heater going completely bonkers or is it something else?
When our meter got replaced we saw a similar uptick, and the utility company (of course) said that it was because older meters get sticky and therefore undercharge you.
Plausible, but money is involved, so iffy.
As for us, I'll be really interested in how our electric works out this year. Our solar produces vastly more than we typically use (we generate an excess of 1500+ kWh per year), but with the ridiculously warm weather so far this year (still hitting the mid to high 60s every day) we're still not using gas. Instead, our "cold vulnerable" family members (Impus Major and GothBard) are running little portable 750W heaters for a few hours a day.
Solar should offset that, but we'll see how it goes.
Hrmpf. The electricity bill came and it's bloated. It shows over 400 kWh more used over the last six month than the previous one, which was already 200 kWh more than the earlier...
It can't really be the issue with the meter because it was replaced with a new one in the middle of that period, and the new one shows use of 572 kWh over two months.
Is the electric water heater going completely bonkers or is it something else?
When our meter got replaced we saw a similar uptick, and the utility company (of course) said that it was because older meters get sticky and therefore undercharge you.
Plausible, but money is involved, so iffy.
The noticeable upsurge in electricity consumption started last year, long before the meter was replaced. A few months earlier the renovation of electric cables in the communal part of the building was completed, and it included moving the old meter from the apartment to the staircase
On the other hand, the electric water heater is rather old and slowly breaking down.
For now I am pulling the plug on the water heater to check the reading after a day off, then over the weekend I will plug it in again and compare reading.
I might check later the same with and without fridge, though not until I clear it a bit.
Replacing the water heater is an expense that I'd rather avoid as between the device price itself, transport, and installation, it is basically totals my monthly living expenses.